Cross-head for shaft-mines.



PATEN'IED JUNE 9, 1908.

C. A. MAGNUSON. GROSS HEAD FOR SHAFT MINES.

APPLICATION FILED AUG; 23, 1907.

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- UNITED CARL AUGUST MAGNUSON, OF GOLDFIE LD, NEVADA.

CROSS-HEAD FOR SHAFT-MINES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 9, 1908.

Application filed. August 23, 1907. Serial No. 389,832.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CARL AUGUST MAGNU- SON, a resident of Goldfield, in the county of Esmeralda and State of Nevada, have in vented certain new and useful Improvements in Cross-Heads for Shaft-Mines, of which the following is a specification.

In connection with the bucket hoisting cable of a shaft mine it is necessary to employ a sliding cross head for holding the bucket in the center of the shaft. Sometimes the cross head becomes stuck on the guides and disconnects from the cable, and then after the bucket has lowered the cross head loosens and drops thereon, endangering the lives of miners or others descending in the bucket, and even if the bucket is not occupied, it or the cross head, or both, are liable to be wrecked by such collision.

The purpose of the present invention is to obviate these dangers by providingaconnecting device which is movably secured to the cross head and adapted to be automatically released by its engagement with a fixed stop arranged at any elevation where it is desired to hold the cross head from lowering further, it being impossible for the cross head and cable to become accidentally disengaged before such stop is reached. If the cross head should stick in the guides notwithstanding the weight of the bucket, the slack cable will inform the engineer at the surface, whereupon the cable will be at once tightened, and the cross head and bucket lifted from the stalled position.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation of the cross head and a portion of the cable, showing said parts connected with the improved device, and Fig. 2 is a similar view showing the parts disengaged, as when the fixed stop is reached. Fig. 8 is a vertical sectional view on line 3-3 of Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a detail view of the latch.

Referring to the drawings, 2 designates the vertical guides secured at opposite sides of a shaft, and 3 is the cross head which consists of a frame of rectangular form held between the guides by cross braces 1, the ends of the latter overlappin the guides, as shown.

Pivoted centra ly to the bottom rail 8 of the cross head is the cable-securing device, here shown in the form of a hook 5 having a ifurcated shank portion 6 for embracing 7 is a bar arranged at one side of the cross head and slidable vertically in keepers 8, with its lower end projecting beneath the cross head and carrying the laterally projecting arm 9 which moves in the path of stop 10 secured to one of guides 2 at a point where it is desired to hold the cross head from descending further. Upon engaging this stop, bar 7 is raised, and as it is connect ed with hook 5 by link 11, the hook is drawn backward, as in Fig. 2, and disengaged from the cable, permitting the latter and the bucket (not shown) to continue the descent, the cross head being securely held from further downward movement by stop 10.

The cable 12 is preferably provided with a bar 13, Secured thereto by clamps 14, and having at its upper end head 15, beneath which the bar and cable are embraced by the hook when the parts are connected as .in

Fig. 1.

The advantage of the device is that when lowering the bucket in the shaft the cable and the cross head are securely united and even though the cross head sticks they can not become parted. If not thus securely united, if the cross head should become stalled it might loosen after the bucket had lowered a greater or less distance and then drop, endangering the life of any person in the bucket, and also probably smashing the bucket as well as the cross head. The improvement precludes such accident and insures the lowering of the cross head to any point where it is desired to stop its movement. Should the cross head with the cable connected thereto become stalled, the ensuing slack in the cable would indicate such condition at the surface and the cable will be immediately rewound and the cross head and bucket released.

I claim 1. The combination of a hoisting cable, a head secured thereto, a sliding crosshead, a single device pivoted to swing laterally on the crosshead and having a bifurcated part fully embracing the cable beneath the head, a single fixed stop, and mechanism connected to the pivoted device and engaging the stop for disconnecting the pivoted device from the cable and head.

2. The combination of a hoisting cable, a

sliding crosshead havin a cable passage, a

head secured to the cable, a device having a bifurcated shank embracing the lower por .tion of the crosshead and pivoted thereto, In testimony whereof I afIiX my signature the lower end of the device projected laterin presence of two witnesses.

ally and bifurcated to fully embrace the cable beneath the said head and bear up- CARL AUGUST MAGNUSON' 5 Wardly thereagainst, and means operating at Witnesses:

one side only of the crosshead for disengaging JOSEPH W. RILEY, the pivoted device from the cable and head. W. J. BOYD. 

